Quote:
Originally Posted by Vivian Layne-Parkin
Hubby and I used to boondock in our 13' boler a lot but we are now both on CPAP machines so have had to have hydro sites for past couple of years. We really aren't happy about that! We installed a deep cycle marine battery which takes care of lights, 12v fantastic fan etc, but not the CPAP machines. I bought two 12 volt folding solar panels that run concurrent to charge my 400 power pack but it will only run the machines for one night and the solar panels won't fully charge it up for the next night. I assume I don't have big enough solar panels. For us, here in Ontario where Carol you are right, generators are in many cases, banned, solar is the option I need to look at. Can you give me any information on how much solar I need?
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Vivian I am not in Ontario, in BC where as you know we do have a few camping seasons where a full sun day can be elusive - thankfully not this year though! As has been suggested it involves a bit of math as to your power usage as well as some knowledge as to what your normal camping situation is - do you camp with lots of tree coverage or normally out in the open? Are you a fair weather camper only? What size of deep cell
battery do you have? higher is better and going to 2 6 volt batteries better again.
Either way I would suggest that the 12 w panels would indeed have difficulties with maintaining battery even without running two CPAP machines. Its important to know what the draw is of the CPAP machines is as they are not all created equal either.
There is a site that will give you lots of info called the
12 Volt Side of Life that is worth reading through.
I don't have a CPAP so can't suggest what may be needed but I can get by easily with less than 60 watt panel & never drop the battery below 50% - running the
fridge on
propane and using only
LED lights in the trailer. That includes using the Fantastic Fan or
furnace on a as needed bases. If I was counting on keeping medical equipment running I would think you would need at least a 120W if not more. I know we have a number of people here who require a CPAP machine and they do get by on solar so hopefully one of them will pipe up and advise how big the panels are that they use and under what conditions. You could also Google this forum and find past threads on the topic of CPAP and solar.
The good news is that panels have dropped in price greatly since I purchased my system a number of years ago - you can get solar panels for as little as $1 per watt these days and the size of the panels has dropped which helps as well with the storage of them. You will need to look beyond Canadian Tire for those prices though. Their pricing is pretty high for the small systems they sell.
My apologies in advance to those who don't feel it appropriate or helpful to answer a solar question on a
generator thread